Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced the transfer of 4 percent of the shares of the Saudi Oil Company (Aramco) to the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, according to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA).
Mohammed bin Salman said that “the transfer of these shares is part of the Kingdom’s long-term strategy aimed at supporting the restructuring of the national economy, in line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030,” adding: “It also contributes to supporting the fund’s plans to raise the volume of its assets under management to about 4 trillion.” Saudi riyals by the end of 2025.
The Saudi Crown Prince pointed out that the Kingdom – the largest oil exporter in the world – is still the largest shareholder in Aramco after the transfers of shares, as these are more than 94 percent of the company’s total assets.
The Saudi Crown Prince, who also chairs the Board of Directors of the Public Investment Fund, announced in 2017, the sale of a small part of Aramco’s shares and its offering in the public offering, which was postponed more than once, and actually started at the end of 2019.
In November 2019, the oil giant announced that it would sell 1.5 percent of its shares based on a price range per share between $8 and $8.5, which means that it would get at least $24 billion from the historic sale.
In addition, Mohammed bin Salman said that “the fund continues to achieve its strategy by maximizing its assets, launching new sectors, building strategic economic partnerships, and localizing technologies and knowledge, and the fund aims by the end of 2025 to pump up to one trillion Saudi riyals into new projects locally, and to increase its contribution and companies.” subsidiaries in local content to reach 60%, in addition to creating more direct and indirect jobs in the local labor market.”
And Saudi Vision 2030, a strategy that the crown prince launched in 2016 to diversify the sources of income for the oil-rich kingdom.
In 2018, Aramco achieved a net profit of $111 billion, outperforming the five largest global oil companies, and generated revenues of $356 billion, according to Agence France-Presse.